Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian will meet opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou next week for the first time since Ma became Kuomintang chairman, hoping to find some common ground on dealing with the mainland, officials said on Friday.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, shows the gift from Taiwan's Nationalist Party leader Ma Ying-jeou, right, during a news conference at Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston., Tuesday, March 21, 2006. Ma is a graduate of the Harvard Law School. [AP]

But sharp differences in their stance towards Beijing and deep mistrust between the two men make any significant breakthrough unlikely.

Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stands for an independent Taiwan. The Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, favours closer ties with the mainland and opposes any formal split.

"Chairman Ma wants to meet Chen face-to-face to exchange views in the hope of achieving a consensus mainly on cross-Taiwan Strait relations," KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen said.

Chen's office said the meeting would take place at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday, but gave no agenda.

Ma proposed talks with Chen after returning from a high-profile visit to the United States this week, saying he would like to offer suggestions to Chen on how to avoid a crisis.

Perennially fraught ties with mainland were further strained in February when Chen scrapped the National Unification Council, a dormant but politically symbolic body aimed at one day reuniting Taiwan with the mainland.

Ma, widely seen as the opposition's best bet to win back the "presidency" in 2008, has seen his popularity rise nine points to 67 percent since his American trip, according to an opinion poll by the TVBS cable news network this week.

Meanwhile, the China Times quoted an internal DPP poll putting Chen's approval rating at a record low 18 percent.